This type of altimeter provides the distance between the antenna and the ground directly below it in contrast to a.
Satellite radar altimeter accuracy.
Abstract the unprecedented accuracy of elevations retrieved from the ice cloud and land elevation satellite icesat laser altimeter is investigated and used to characterize the range errors in the environmental satellite envisat and european remote sensing 2 satellite ers 2 radar altimeters over the continental ice sheets.
Satellite altimeter radar measurements can be combined with precisely known spacecraft orbits to measure sea level on a global basis with unprecedented accuracy.
A series of satellite missions that started with topex poseidon t p in 1992 and continued with jason 1 2001 2013 jason 2 2008 2019 and jason 3 2016 present estimate.
Figure 1 shows a schematic of the topex poseidon t p satellite altimeter system.
The delay is directly related to the radar frequency so the difference between the two measurements can.
Launched in 1992 as a joint mission of the american and french space agencies and still operating as of 2001 t p is the most accurate altimeter flown to date.
Free electrons in the atmosphere can delay the signal s return affecting the measurement accuracy.
The poseidon 3 altimeter emits pulses at two frequencies 13 6 and 5 3 ghz to measure the distance from the satellite to the surface range.
A satellite radar altimeter is a nadir looking radar with very high range resolution which measures the ocean surface topography with an accuracy in the order of few centimeters.
Additionally analysis of the echo amplitude and shape can extract information about the wind speed and wave height respectively.
Its microwave radars measure the distance to the sea surface with a precision of 2 cm.
An altimeter measures how high something is.